Like corn tortillas, flour tortillas do great in the deep-fryer. They fry up really fast, in less than three minutes, and, come out super-crispy and light and airy too, meaning: they're not nearly as dense as corn tortillas. They almost melt in your mouth. Because flour tortillas are a bit too fragile to make traditionally shaped taco shells, they're traditionally deep-fried whole, in a molded fryer-basket, to make large-edible bowls for serving taco salad. That said, in my kitchen I like to make these fun little wisps, to use to garnish Tex-Mex-style soups, salads and 'burgers.
Fry these fun little wisps to garnish soups, salads & 'burgers.
10 6"-round "fajita size" flour tortillas (Note: Any size flour tortillas may be used, I just find the small ones the easiest to work with.)
freshly ground sea salt
corn or peanut oil, heated to 375º in deep-fryer (or in a 4-quart saucepan on the stovetop) according to manufacturer's instructions
~Step 1. Stack and thinly slice five flour tortillas in half. Stack and thinly slice the second five tortillas in half. Each of the four stacks of halves will be one batch. Slice each stack of halves into thin strips, as thin as you can.
~Step 2. Preheat oil in deep fryer to 375º. Ready a large pan or baking sheet by lining it with 2-3 layers of paper towels. Working in a series of four batches, drop the first batch (one handful) into hot oil of in deep fryer, close the lid and fry for 2 1/2 minutes. Lift the fryer basket up and out of the deep-fryer and transfer the crispy wisps (invert the basket) to the paper-towel-lined pan. Season wisps with a generous grinding of sea salt. Repeat with remaining three batches.
Cool & store in an airtight container for up to one week:
How to Make My Crispy Crunchy Flour Tortilla Wisps: Recipe yields about 6 cups.
Special Equipment List: cutting board; chef's knife; deep-fryer or 4-quart saucepan and candy-type or digital thermometer; disposable aluminum pan or baking sheet; paper towels
Cook's Note: If you prepare taco salad often enough to merit wanting to serve it restaurant-style, in the traditional deep-fried, flour tortilla bowl, I highly suggest making a small investment, $15.00-ish, in a metal, one- or two-piece fryer-basket that will not only make this task easy, it will keep you from getting burned by jury-rigged crack-pot methods -- puns intended. Read ~ How to Deep-Fry Restaurant-Style Taco Salad Bowls ~, then, have some safety-first taco-Tuesday fun with your family and friends.
"We are all in this food world together." ~ Melanie Preschutti
(Recipe, Commentary and Photos courtesy of Melanie's Kitchen/Copyright 2019)
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